Sakura's Fall to Middle Earth
by Jung-Hee
Summary: Sakura has literally fallen into Middle Earth, without a clue of how to get back home. Now she's stuck in a mess she can't seem to get out of, what with dark riders want to slice her into little pieces, a dark lord hunting for her friends. I mean, really, how much worse can it get? "Sakura, you have to get on the horse." "... You have got to be kidding me."
1. Prologue

_**Sakura's Fall to Middle Earth**_

Prologue

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Something was not right, thought Sakura as she tried to bring herself to wake up, but found it useless. Her body was completely numb, at least that's what it felt like. She tried her best to make sense of where she was, opening her senses to the area around her. She could hear birds singing and the sound of leaves falling from trees, and feel the wind against her body. She could smell the grass and hear water from a nearby crick. Just as she was about to give up, she heard it.

"Is she alright, Gandalf?"

A young man?

"Quiet my boy, I believe she's trying to wake up."

The first voice was male, young, but obviously foreign. She remembered the language, but not the accent. This was where she was very thankful for all the traveling she did while she was training under Tsunade, she learned a lot of languages during those days. But she herself had trouble speaking it and she couldn't remember traveling in the direction of foreign countries.

"I swear it, I saw her fall right out of the sky!" Frodo couldn't keep quiet even if he tried as he might, he was just so excited about this unknown, yet strange woman that had fallen practically on his lap as he was reading, waiting for Gandalf to arrive.

Now that was strange... Had she fallen from something? She couldn't remember how she had even gotten in this situation, all she could really remember was talking to Tsunade, getting ready to work out some plans for a meeting with the Kages, since the war was finally over. And now here she was, obviously alone and confused.

"Come now, my dear, I know you are awake."

That was definitely the voice of the older male, urging her gently and kindly to awaken, but try as she might. She couldn't, it was like a weight of lead was keeping her from rousing... Her mind was awake and fully alert, but her body was still dead to the world. She tried to bring her muscles to move or to somehow bring her body to listen to her mind, but she couldn't do a thing. She couldn't even tell them what was wrong.

"Maybe she can't?" The young voice spoke up in concern.

She could feel them drawing closer to her person, if she had been awake she would have held out a kunai to keep them at bay, but she couldn't help but feel a little comforted at the fact that they, for now, meant her no harm. She couldn't sense their chakra (which was odd) and she couldn't sense any ill will.

"Nonsense, Frodo it's not as if she is under some sort of... Spell... Hmmm." Gandalf's old eyes narrowed as he stared at the young girl a bit longer. After a few more moments of staring, he knelt down beside Sakura and waved a hand over her eyes, muttering something neither Sakura nor Frodo could hear.

And just like that, Sakura's bright green eyes shot open, and breath left her in great spurts as she gasped for air she did not know she needed. Her chest heaved with the effort and her hands and legs shook as she tried to sit up into a sitting position. She kept her eyes downcast as she looked around herself. As she had figured before, she was in a forest, with tall trees and nothing but a single road leading to what seemed to be more forest. Great. She couldn't recognize anything.

"My dear girl," spoke Gandalf, she figured. "if I had known that you were under a spell, I would have awoken you much, much sooner." He bowed his head in apology.

"Are you hurt?" Frodo asked gently, keeping a respectful distance from the girl as she looked at them both.

Sakura shook her head in answer to Frodo, smiling in return even though she still had no clue who these strange looking people were, or where in the world she was. "W-Where," she stuttered, the words coming out clumsily. "am I?" She managed in the foreign tongue that the strange men spoke.

Frodo smiled kindly. "Why, you're in Hobbiton of the Shire."

Sakura's brows furrowed in absolute confusion. "H-Hobb-iton? Shire?" She knew she must have looked ridiculously confused to the two males as she tried to speak the words of the places she found herself in.

Frodo and Gandalf exchanged curious looks as Sakura ran a shaky hand through her hair. They found her very odd to the eye. For she had unnaturally pink hair and she showed a lot more skin than was respectable. Gandalf figured she must have come from a place neither he nor anyone else but, this young girl, could have come from.

Frodo was oblivious to Gandalf's inner musings as he smiled at the curious girl. "Would you care to come to a birthday party?"

Gandalf at that moment had been breathing in a bit from his pipe when Frodo asked the girl the question and he spluttered in smoky gasps of air. Coughing into his arm his eyes watering he watched the girl nod hesitantly as she gratefully took Frodo's helpful hand.

Sakura figured she had no other choice but to go with the two strange looking men, as she stood she realized the amazing height difference between herself and the young man. He had to have been a man, he looked to be in his early twenties like herself, but his size told her he was nothing more than a child. Gandalf towered over them both like a giant, and she could only imagine what poor Frodo must have felt like compared to the two of them.

"Come, Gandalf!" Frodo shouted as he dragged Sakura towards Gandalf's horse drawn carriage.

Sakura eyed the horse wearily as she gathered her wits and followed Frodo up on the wagon. Gandalf not too far behind them, as he too, managed to bring himself up on the wagon. "I'm sure there is always room for visitors, but let's keep your arrival between us three, hmmm?"

Sakura couldn't help but agree. She only hoped that she found her way home soon, these people were nice, but she'd be a lot more comfortable in a place she was use to.

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**A/N: This is my only Authors Note, I assure you that this is not a copy of DevilOnYourShoulder's story When in Middle Earth, though I will give her credit to the idea of my Sakura's Fall to Middle Earth. I have wanted to write something like what she'd written for a while, but I assure you it is different as different can be. So please, just read it before you kill me and tell me I'm a thief, because I'm not. **

**I thank and appreciate very much your reviews and favs and follows, so please send me lots and tell me what you think and what you would hope will happen. I'll keep regular updates for once :)**

**Thank you and happy readings!**

**Jung-Hee**


	2. Chapter One

_**Sakura's Fall to Middle Earth**_

Chapter One

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Music played and hobbits sang unknown songs, laughing and giggling amongst themselves as they told tales of adventures, and of dwarfs, dragons and men and elves. They were singing of long forgotten tales of old and eating and drinking to their hearts content. Gandalf lighting fireworks for the little children and Frodo and Sam watching as their kin danced around the fire merrily.

Sakura watched all of this wearily, her stomach aching from eating and drinking of the unknown food, and her heart dropping at the thought of never being able to see the festivals of her home again. She missed home more than ever and it had only been half a day since she found herself amongst the company of Gandalf and the hobbits. They were as welcoming to her as all would be welcoming to unknown strangers. They fed her and gave her as much as she could drink, they talked with her, not minding the fact that she could hardly keep up with their happy banter for even though she recognized the language, she was not fluent, and could barely keep up and was limited in vocabulary.

She tried her best to sense their chakras, and either they hid it very well, or they did not have any at all. Which was very strange, considering everyone had to have chakra, it was apart of ones being. She watched Gandalf laugh as he gathered more fireworks. She considered her ponderings again and found that they definitely did not have any chakra.

Sam stumbled by with a girl she had known to be called Rosie.

Yep, definitely did not have an ounce of chakra.

Though, they were very welcoming and hospitable; she knew they were all thinking the same things. _Where did she come from? Look at her hair and clothes, she's definitely not from around these parts. She seems too young to be showing so much skin, look at her stomach showing for all the men to see._

Self consciously Sakura wrapped her arms around her middle and laid her head against the side of the barn as she watched Frodo urge his friend to keep dancing. Now you would think with all the hustle and bustle she would join the hobbits' celebration, but all she could really do was ponder of her miss-givings and how she would get out of it.

"Sakura, come dance with dear ole' Sam."

Before she could even dissuade the bubbly hobbit from his thoughts of watching her fumble all around trying to dance, she had already been pushed into the open arms of Sam as he started to twirl her around himself. Frodo was laughing and clapping along with his dear old Uncle Bilbo, very proud of himself for bringing a smile finally to Sakura's face.

Gandalf laughed and clapped from his position near the wagon of fireworks, managing to get a perfect view of Sakura being passed around like a child's toy between folks, twirling her and dipping her in dance. She was even dancing along with them as she finally got the hang of things and was brought into the beat of the flutes and stringed instruments. Everyone was joining in the circle, watching the new girl dance with the many lads who were lined up to have a go.

She felt like a party ride as she was spun around once more, she looked helplessly back at Gandalf and Frodo as they continued to egg them on to keep dancing, even as one song changed to another. Finally, the shout of a dragon brought everyone to attention.

Wait... Dragon!

"Sakura, get down!" Frodo shouted as he pulled Bilbo down to the ground with him.

Sakura took no time dropping to her knees and covering her head with her hands as a fiery dragon flew overhead. She heard the screams of terror from the hobbits and was just about to show that darn menace a piece of her mind before it exploded in beautiful flurries of fireworks.

She sat up and looked around for Gandalf, seeing him holding two young hobbits' by the ears and saying something to each of them before he dragged them to the makeshift kitchens. She laughed behind her hand and shook her head before Bilbo was up on a makeshift stage and drawing everyone to attention.

The noise subsided.

"I shall not keep you long," he cried.

Sakura watched with curious green eyes as everyone grew quiet in await of Bilbo's speech. She could see Gandalf's sharp gaze, watching Bilbo with as much intent as she supposed he could give.

This had her curious, and even though she was out of her element, she could still sense something was off and not right. And it had everything to do with the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.

"I have called you all together for a Purpose."

Something in the way that he said this made an impression on Sakura, and unknowingly to her, Gandalf and Frodo too.

There was almost silence, and one or two of the Tooks pricked up their ears.

"Indeed, for Three Purposes! First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that eleventy-one years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits."

Sakura raised a brow at the buttering up he was doing. Though they took it all with stride and hadn't seemed to catch on.

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

This was unexpected in all aspects and rather difficult for Sakura to understand. There was some scattered clapping, but most of them were trying to work it out and see if it came to a compliment. Sakura was among those few who understood exactly what he was saying, and she found him very rude at that moment.

"Secondly, to celebrate my birthday."

Sakura clapped along with the cheers again.

"I should say: _Our _birthday. For it is, of course, also the birthday of my heir and nephew, Frodo. He comes of age and into his inheritance today."

Sakura smiled as Frodo was bombarded with young hobbits clapping him on the back and showing the congratulations.

"Thank you very much for coming to my little party."

Obstinate silence. They all feared that a song or some poetry was now imminent; and they were getting bored. Sakura however was very curious of this little detail Bilbo was giving out. She had not a clue as to what he was talking about, and wondered why everyone was so quiet, when just seconds ago they were as loud as humanly possible.

He paused for a moment. "Thirdly and finally," he said, "I wish to make an _announcement._" He spoke this last word so loudly and suddenly that everyone sat up who still could. "I regret to announce that – though, as I said, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to spend among you – this is the _end_. I am going. I am leaving _now_. _Good-bye_!"

The whole Shire was in amok as Bilbo suddenly disappeared right before their very eyes and a giant flash following right after. Sakura's green eyes were immediately alert and the ninja in her was already trying to make sense of what had happened to the elder hobbit. She caught Gandalf's eyes and they stared at one another for a long moment, neither moving or saying anything to anyone as everyone around them scoured the whole place it seemed, looking for Bilbo.

All too soon they both broke eye contact and led their sights on exactly the same thing at the same time. Bilbo's Hole.

Sakura was there in a flash, waiting in the shadows as Gandalf ran in a hurry towards Bilbo's hole in the Hill. She kept to the ground and in stealth listened with keen ears as there went a little banter between the two as soon as Gandalf walked into the cozy home.

"Hello!" said Bilbo as Sakura listened from under the windowsill. "I wondered if you would turn up." He spoke she supposed, to Gandalf.

"I am glad to find you visible," replied the wizard.

So he did know about Bilbo's little vanishing act after all. Sakura thought to herself.

"I wanted to catch you and have a few final words. I suppose you feel that everything has gone off splendidly and according to plan?"

Sakura furrowed her brows, wishing they would stop talking in riddles and say what needed to be said so she could make sense of it all.

"Yes, I do," said Bilbo. "Though that flash was surprising: it quite startled me, let alone the others. A little addition of your own, I suppose?"

"It was. You have wisely kept that ring secret all these years, and it seemed to be necessary to give your guests something else that would seem to explain your sudden vanishment."

A ring? Thought Sakura as she cupped her chin, pondering what sort of jutsu could pull off that sort of trick just from a jewel? Though, now that she had been here for a little bit of time, she'd come to think that nothing of her old home was here and that something more powerful was involved. That in which told her she shouldn't be surprised that a ring could turn someone invisible.

"And would spoil my joke?You are an interfering old busybody," laughed Bilbo, "but I expect you know best, as usual."

"I do – when I know anything. But I don't feel too sure about this whole affair. It has now come to the final point. You have had your joke, and alarmed or offended most of your relations, and given the whole Shire something to talk about for nine days, or ninety-nine more likely. Are you going any further?"

Sakura hoped not.

"Yes, I am."

Oh great.

"I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday, as I have told you before. Probably a

permanent holiday: I don't expect I shall return. In fact, I don't mean to, and I have made all arrangements." He said rather darkly.

Sakura peeked her head over the window to see if she could see them, her eyes immediately spotted Bilbo and Gandalf, the former holding something in his hand as he twirled it in his fingers, his back to Gandalf. She noticed that he was looking at that ring a little oddly, though.

"I am old, Gandalf," he said to the old wizard softly. "I don't look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts." He snorted. "Why, I feel all stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something."

Sakura thought he needed a lot more than some journey, more like mental medicine or something of the same sort. He was talking like a complete lunatic.

"I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains, I might find somewhere where I can finish my book..."

And Sakura stopped listening after that. They were just talking amongst themselves now, not really saying anything of any importance. She wondered what exactly was going to happen once Bilbo left. What was this ring they were talking about, and how did it have the power of turning people invisible, Sakura shook her head.

Then she heard Gandalf yell and poked her head back up to see the old wizard looming over a frightened Bilbo. The ninja in her told her to go and rescue the poor, terrified hobbit, but the curiosity told her to stay and wait it out. A part of her knew Gandalf would never hurt a hobbit, he seemed to treasure them too much to do that sort of thing.

She waited a few more moments before she became alert again, watching Bilbo walk out of the home with a great sigh of relief, or dread, she could not guess, but he went on his way either way and she had half a mind to jump out of the way as a staff came bounding in the direction of her head. "Hey! Watch it!" She snapped, grabbing her head as if it had already been offended.

"I say, Sakura, how dare you eavesdrop on two old men?"

"Eavesdrop? I was just as curious as you to see what that old man was up to! You can't blame me for my stealth, it was your own fault for not catching me sooner." She snapped back, forgetting her place all too quickly.

"Oh," Gandalf said, an eyebrow lifting right under his hat. "I believe there is a great deal about you that you are not telling, fare Sakura. Why don't you come in for some tea, and we'll discuss more about where you came from."

Sakura had no choice but to do as he said. He was a wizard of these parts, and maybe he could help her find a way back home. "Alright."

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"It is as I figured," Gandalf said sagely. "you are definitely not from around here, anywhere really. I suppose the real question is, how to get you back?"

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Yes, I've been going through my head of all sorts of jutsu that could have been used, but my mind is coming up blank. I'm sorry that I have to trouble you, Gandalf."

"No trouble at all my lady, you are just lost right now. But do not fear, in time I'm sure you'll find your way home. But right now, we're about to have a guest, so why don't you keep the meeting I had with Bilbo between you and I, hmmm?"

Before she could answer, along came Frodo, calling for Bilbo.

"Gandalf, Sakura...?" Frodo looked around the dark home and sighed as he held out the ring in his hand that he found on the floor. "He's left, hasn't he?" He asked Gandalf. He didn't wait for a response. "I always knew he would leave. I just didn't expect him to do it so soon."

Gandalf walked over to Frodo, and gently closed his hand over the ring. "This is Bilbo's ring, he left it to you and all his treasures."

Sakura's curiosity for this ring was starting to reach its peak, but she feared asking about it.

"Keep it safe, keep it hidden." Gandalf advised. "Now, I must go an attend to some business." He told them, gathering his staff and his hat as he neared the door.

"But you've only just arrived, I don't understand." Frodo cried.

Neither do I. Thought Sakura.

Gandalf smiled and took Frodo by the shoulders. "Hobbits are really magnificent creatures. I won't be long, keep Sakura out of trouble. I'll be back shortly."

And with that, he left Sakura and Frodo standing in the little home, alone. Frodo looked back at Sakura and shrugged helplessly. "I suppose I'll set you up a room." He said more to himself than to Sakura as she quickly bounded after Gandalf at full speed.

"You're just going to leave me here!" Sakura exclaimed as she clamored on to the carriage as Gandalf rode away.

"From what you told me you are a warrior and a protector. I need you to look after Frodo for me." He told her gently, halting the carriage so she wouldn't get lost on her way back.

"What is going on, is there something you're not telling Frodo and I about?" She asked, her eyes narrowing on the old man. "Why would I need to protect Frodo?"

Gandalf smiled knowingly. "All I ask is that you keep Frodo safe."

Sakura was in doubts. She wanted to know more, but knew she would get nothing out of Gandalf now. So she let him go on his way, leaving her standing in the middle of the dirt road, alone, and lost as of what to do. She held back her helpless tears and smacked her cheeks to snap her out of her depression. She was stronger and wiser than her old self. She'll find a way out of this mess if it was the last thing she ever did.

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Time came and went and days turned in to weeks and weeks turned into months as Gandalf still had not shown up. The first few days were hard on Sakura, She would spend her days in the forest where they had found her and sit in the same spot she landed, meditating for hours trying to get a sense of something that was just not there. Sakura mourned the thought of ever getting home. She had been gone for so long she wondered if they had given up, thinking she were dead or ran away to never return again. She feared Gandalf would never come back to help her find her way home. Not that the hobbits were unwelcoming to her, they were very kind and generous, but she missed Konoha and all her friends and family.

Though as time passed Sakura grewe so busy learning and getting acquainted with new things that she hardly had time to wonder when Gandalf would show up. But always, when she was lying in her bed to sleep, she would let her mind wonder back to her home, and the people she missed dearly. She wanted to go home so bad in those times. That's when she would feel the most homesick. Sometimes when she would be laughing with Pippin and Merry, she'd remember Naruto and how he always use to make her laugh.

She had grown quite close with the four hobbits, they always tried to make her feel at home, and welcome. Which she was very thankful for, she didn't know what she would do if she didn't have them by her side. And the hobbits of the Shire were starting to get quite use to her. She showed them things, and they taught her their language each day, almost to where she was almost fluent, but she still had her problems with the R's and other things too, but she didn't like to dwell on the negative.

Pippin had practically become her little brother, even though by age he was way much older, but he was like a little boy, really. What with his childish looks and his equally childish personality. He was like Naruto's carbon copy, just not as loud.

She loved spending time with Frodo, he was very curious about where she'd come from. Though it was hard to explain how she got there, it was quite enjoyable to see his eyes light up whenever she talked about Konoha and her many adventures. As he liked to call the missions she had had over the years.

Sam was very much intrigued with her abilities to heal, though, she was scared to even try and use it for fear that nothing would happen and she'd be completely defenseless in this new world she managed to land herself in. But she knew a lot about herbs and natural medicine that she showed him everyday things that would be helpful during times when a doctor wasn't going to be around.

Merry was a fighter, he loved to try and sneak attack her almost every day. Even though she hadn't tried to use any of her ninja abilities, she still had many of her own devices that she had learned without the use of jutsu, it was pure technique that she developed a keen sense of hearing and learning to adapt to her surroundings that she always managed to catch him right before he would tackle her to the ground.

The hobbit women found her remarkably odd and beautiful all at the same time. They had made her change into different clothes, but Sakura absolutely refused to wear a dress, so they all settled for a pair of nice fitting trousers and long sleeve shirt that was loose around the arms but was belted in the middle. Luckily her boots fit the ensemble so she didn't have to worry about finding new shoes.

She worried about Gandalf almost everyday, hoping he was trying to find her a way home. And if he wasn't; she hoped that he would arrive soon so that they could figure out how to get her home. She was beginning to love the Shire and the hobbits, but she couldn't help but miss her home and worry whether or not everyone was okay. She hoped beyond all reason, that Tsunade was trying to figure out a way to bring her back. Surely they had to know where she was. Or if not, at least know what had gotten her in this mess in the first place.

She could only wait for now... It was a very good thing that she was patient, or she would have killed herself a long time ago.

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…

It was late one night when Gandalf finally showed up; it was dark in the house and Frodo and Sakura were just saying goodbye to Sam when Sakura sensed something was off. She didn't address her thoughts out loud, for fear of frightening Frodo, so she kept on guard as they walked in the house, immediately sensing they were not alone.

She quickly turned and pulled Frodo behind her, and snatched the hand that was trying to grab at Frodo, twisting it and pulling it behind the strangers back! "Who are you?!" She shouted, it was still dark so she couldn't tell and they didn't have chakra so she couldn't sense who it was either. Her skills were practically useless if she couldn't tell if they were friend or foe.

"Sakura!"

That was odd, she didn't know the enemy knew her name.

"Sakura," Frodo cried. "that's Gandalf."

Oh...

"Oh." She said, releasing Gandalf as he turned to face the two, rubbing his wrist and grumbling under his breath.

"I see you've taken my words seriously, Sakura." He said in surprise, reaching out and patting her shoulder.

Sakura blushed and looked away awkwardly. After a few moments the air around them turned serious and she noticed how pale the old wizard looked as he got his bearings. He walked up to the hobbit and placed his hands on his shoulders. "Is it secret, is it safe?"

Sakura cocked her head to the side in confusion as Frodo nodded quickly and walked over to a chest in a corner of the room, moving things aside before he pulled out a small envelope. He handed it to Gandalf and they both watched as the wizard pulled out the ring and through it into the fire.

"What are you doing?!" Both she and Frodo cried in unison.

"Hush now." Gandalf chastised, waving them off and grabbing a pair of fire tongs and reaching into the fire to pull the ring out. "Now, hold out your hand Frodo."

Frodo took the ring and held it in his hand lightly, bouncing it around, waiting for it to cool.

"What can you see?" Gandalf said, turning away from Frodo and Sakura and leaning against the mantle.

"Nothing..." Frodo said.

"Wait," said Sakura as she looked more closely. "I see something."

"I do too, now." Frodo said with a shake of his head. "It's in some form of elvish; I can't make it out."

"No, of course not, there aren't many who can, that is the language of Mordor, which I will not utter here. In the common tongue it says: one ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. This Frodo is the One Ring. Forged in secret by Sauron, the Dark Lord."

Frodo's eyes widened in horror as Gandalf told him what exactly the ring was. Frodo couldn't believe it.

Sakura was having trouble figuring out what exactly was going and what in the world they were talking about. To her it looked like just a plain old ring.

"Take it Gandalf! Take it! I'm giving it to you!"

Sakura watched with wide eyes as Frodo thrust his hand out towards Gandalf, who practically bumped his head from backing away.

"Don't tempt me Frodo! I can not take the ring, I would wish to do things for good, but the evil power is too strong even for me."

Frodo looked crestfallen and Sakura wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulders. She felt as if she should help him, even though she was completely lost in the conversation.

"Then what must I do? The ring can not stay here." Frodo cried in worry.

"No," Gandalf said with a shake of his. "no it can not. Sauron's forces are already seeking to gain the ring for their master... They are coming Frodo."

Frodo gave a cry of dispair. "But how did they know to come here?"

"From the creature Gollum, I don't know how long he was tortured in Mordor, but he knew Bilbo had the ring, and he told them exactly where it was. Only two words left his mouth: Shire. Baggins."

"That would lead them here, to Frodo!" Sakura exclaimed, catching on to the end of their conversation.

Frodo bit his lip and looked down at the ring in his hand. "What must I do?"

Gandalf was already way ahead of them as he gathered a bag and started stuffing things in them. "You must leave, don't tell anyone, it must be in secret. Take as much as you can carry, you must leave tonight, there is no time to waste." Gandalf gave the bag to Frodo, to let him finish gathering things while he stared at Sakura. "You must go with him, my dear."

The rosette looked up at Gandalf. "For protection?"

The old wizard smiled and patted her head affectionately. "You are a very good friend, Sakura. I promise, by the end of all this, I will help you find a way home."

There was a pause, until they heard something in the bushes, all three of them paused. Sakura gathered a kunai from her pouch she had strapped to a belt about her hips. Gandalf and her exchanged looks before she was already launching herself at the window. There was a scuffle and some groans before she rose, holding Samwise Gamgee by the collar of his shirt.

Gandalf narrowed his eyes and grabbed the hobbit and threw him on the table. "Confound it all Samwise Gamgee, have you been eavesdropping?"

"I was dropping no eaves sir, honest."

"What did you hear?" Gandalf asked darkly.

"N-Nothing important, just something about a dark lord and a ring, and maybe the end of the world... You're not going to do anything drastic to me, are you?" Sam asked in fear, curling in on himself as if Gandalf was going to cast a spell right there.

"No, I have something far more better for you."

Sakura and Frodo exchanged amused looks.


	3. Chapter Two

**_Sakura's Fall to Middle Earth_**

**_Chapter Two_**

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Tonight was the night, Sakura thought as she crept out of the little hole she had temporarily called home, to sneak into the forest at a chance to see if she still could use her chakra. As I said previously, Sakura had as of yet, tried to see if she had any of her technique left. She needed to know now before she set off on some sort of adventure that could lead her and her friends into peril. She needed to be far away before she tried to throw a punch at a tree, or stabbed a boulder with a chakra scalpel.

First she broke out into a small run, feeling the wind in her hair and the beat of her footfalls on the earth immediately settling her nerves and putting her in a state of tranquil. The one thing about the Shire, was that instead of modern cities like in her world, Middle Earth was full of nothing but greenery as far as the eye could see, just like Konoha. She loved it. It reminded her so much of home that it comforted her when she needed it most.

Of the months of Gandalfs' absence, she would come into the wood, walking and looking at the greenery and locating herbs that she could familiarize herself with. Luckily, trees and herbs were all the same no matter what realm you lived in, so she was able to find some things that she could use in her spare time for healing medicines and other ointments and poisons of the like. She kept a small cupboard of all her things in a corner of her room, and she made notes of all the new things she could find and possibly use if ever need be.

She bounded at top speed, feeling the rush of adrenaline and anxiety course through her as she sped towards a tree, she built up her energy to try for the most simplest task ever, with a great leap in seconds she was at the top of a tree, the effort not even breaking a sweat as night fell and dawn came through the horizon. She smiled at the sun, knowing it was going to be a good day for a journey.

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…

…

"I am not riding that." Sakura said with a weary eye as she stared at the beast before her.

Sam and Frodo frowned, patting the head of the Shire pony. "It's just a pony, Sakura." Sam said with a snort of a laugh.

Frodo and Gandalf exchanged amused expressions. "I say, of all things, I never expected you to be afraid of a pony." Frodo shook his head in bewilderment.

Sakura blushed and crossed her arms defensively. "I am not afraid, just... cautious. Wouldn't it be better on foot? I mean, sure, we have to carry for three, but think about it, it is much easier to travel on foot and hide if need be without having to wonder what to do with. . . that!" She pointed exasperatedly at the pony who was chewing grass leisurely.

Gandalf tilted his head in ascent. "She does have a point."

Sakura bowed her head in thanks to Gandalf. "Finally, someone is listening to me." She smiled at the two hobbits in victory.

"So, what do you suppose we do then?" Sam asked, looking between Gandalf and Sakura.

"What anyone who is walking on a long journey would do," Sakura said as if it was obvious. "travel lightly."

Sam turned back to the already loaded pony, mournfully.

"No time to waste. We must hurry!" Gandalf said sharply, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "The ringwraiths are not too far behind. They are coming and you must make haste. Meet me at the inn of the Prancing Pony, it's in Bree."

Sakura cataloged that in her memory just in case anyone forgot.

"What about you?" Frodo asked.

"I have other business to attend to, but do not fret, I will meet you there." He clasped both Frodo and Sam on the back as Sakura took the chance to unload the pony. "Hobbits are really amazing creatures, you can know them for a hundred years but they'll always surprise you."

"All right!" Sakura said clapping her hands together at a job well done. "We're all set! Let's go!" She started marching in one direction.

"Uh, Sakura..." Sam said, making her turn around. "Bree is that way." He smiled in the direction behind them, in the direction Sakura was not going.

She blushed and rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, I knew that. Just. . . testing the waters."

And with that they finally broke out on their journey, each carrying a pack full of provisions and a change of clothes. Gandalf walked with them a good ways until it was almost dark and they made it to a small clearing in the middle of a forest.

They had already traveled through a great deal away from Hobbiton. Though when they got to the edge, Sam had stopped to tell them it would be the farthest way from home he had ever been.

Sakura for once was glad to be traveling again, she was getting stir crazy just doing nothing in the Shire. It gave her a good chance to see what she was dealing with when it came to the area she had landed in, but so far she was amazed out how long of a travel it was before she saw civilization. There wasn't any checkpoints, though there was a road, which Gandalf had told them to stay off of. So it was a lot of roundabout walking through fields and farmers' crops.

Even though it had been a few months since Sakura had a long journey on foot, she hadn't been out of shape, but she did have to keep mind of Frodo and Sam and sometimes she would be walking a distance away from them without even realizing it before they would call her back and tell her that they needed a break.

She couldn't wait till they got to Bree. The scenery was beautiful, but she knew that this long of a travel was taking its toll on the home bound hobbits. "Why don't we rest here for the night." She offered, holding her hand up to her eyes so she could look up at the sky to see the direction of where the sun was. "It seems the sun won't last long, this will give you two a good chance to go look for some firewood. I'll go around and set some traps... Just in case." She said with an encouraging smile as they gave her bemused looks. "Don't wander off too far, now."

As Sam and Frodo walked away Sam leaned in to whisper to Frodo. "You know, I think sometimes she forgets who's older."

Sakura pouted and shouted over her shoulder. "I heard that!"

Sam and Frodo ran off giggling after that.

When night fell and the fire was put out, Sakura paid extra attention to her surroundings, the moon was at its peak in the sky and the hobbits were fast asleep when she felt, more than heard, hoof beats from a horse not too far away in the ground. Gandalf told her they had heightened senses, but what they didn't know was so did she. She stared at a sleeping Frodo before she took to the trees, they weren't too far from the road, but a good enough distance away for them not to be spotted. She was glad that she suggested to put out the fire, thankful that it wasn't cold that night.

She was just over on the top most part of the tree when she saw them, three, what she supposed ringwraiths. They were just as Gandalf had described, black riders shrouded with cloaks and black horses. She couldn't be mistaken. With a deep breath, being as quiet as she possibly could she set a genjutsu on them. She didn't know much about this ring they were trying to keep away from these riders, but she knew that she couldn't let them get to Frodo, she had to protect her friends.

"Maybe that'll teach you a lesson." She whispered to them as she departed back into the shadows and over to the camp.

…

By the next morning they were all ready to go, Sakura had kept her small encounter with the wraiths to herself, keeping in mind to tell them when a better time arrived. She didn't want to scare them too soon in their journey. The genjutsu she cast over the riders the night before had long been released, but she knew that it had thrown them off track for a little while, which meant that they had just a little time before they ran into them again.

Though... She would have much preferred a different way than going through a corn field. "I swear, everywhere I turn, there's corn! Don't you people grow anything else around here?" She asked, batting a long stem away from her face as she continued to make a trail for the hobbits.

Frodo laughed as he followed behind Sakura. "We should run into a homemade trail soon, don't worry, then you won't have to fight the terrible corn stocks anymore."

Sakura grumbled something under her throat before she was soon trampled over into the ground, an elbow immediately piercing her ribcage. "Oof!"

"Pippin?!" Frodo shouted, alarmed and wondering if Sakura was hurt.

"Frodo?" Merry said in excited surprise. "Sam!" He smiled at the hobbits, shocked to see them so far from their home, but pleased nonetheless.

"Sakura?" Pippin looked down in the face of an annoyed looking Sakura. "Look, Merry, it's Sakura."

"Get off of her, Pippin!" Merry chastised the oblivious hobbit.

"Well, this is quite a surprise." Sakura said to the four hobbits as she dusted herself off. "What are you two doing here?"

Before they could even reply, they heard shouting not too far away.

Sam looked down at the trampled vegetables. "You've stolen from farmer Maggot's crops again!"

Both Merry and Pippin turned to look over their shoulders before they started shuffling and moving everyone along, they all broke out into a run before they knew it, Sakura in the front not knowing where she was going, she had half the mind to stop when they came to an edge, only to be pushed to the ground, once again, by Pippin. They all fell with groans of pain.

"You have got to stop falling on me, Pippin." Sakura cried out indignantly.

"Mushrooms!" Pippin cried happily, completely ignoring Sakura as they all rushed to pick at the said, mushrooms.

Frodo stood and helped Sakura up, smiling at her with a shrug. "What can you do with them?" He looked back at his friends and shook his head as he watched them.

Sakura brushed her arms, pausing she looked around to see where they wound up, they were definitely off their trail. She felt the hair rise on the back of her neck when she realized that they weren't hidden anymore, and were in fact, where they weren't supposed to be.

Frodo seemed to realize at the exact same time as Sakura. "I think we should get off the road." He said softly.

Sakura was already pulling out her kunai, as they both heard what sounded to be a scream. "Get off the road _now_!" She ordered, disappearing before their eyes.

They all had just enough time to hide under the roots of the tree Sakura had jumped into before they heard the sound of a horse and rider.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, holding her weapon at the ready, just in case it found the makeshift hiding place of her friends. The black rider was sniffing a little too close for comfort when Sakura formed a shadow clone and made it lead the ringwraith away from Frodo and the other hobbits.

The rider made a screech again and fled, following Sakura's clone in the opposite direction of where she knew they were going. "We have to hurry!" She said, meeting them back on the road. "We have no time to waste."

"What's going on?" Merry asked in suspicion.

Frodo looked at him in worry as Sakura looked around them, staying on guard. "We have to get to Bree."

Merry looked down and thought for a moment. "Bucklebury Ferry, follow me."

And they were off again, this time no stops for rest and no stops for food. The riders had found their scent. Sakura worried they wouldn't make it in time, but Merry assured them they weren't too far away.

"We should be there by nightfall."

I don't think we have that much time. Sakura thought to herself as she kept the rear. She made a few shadow clones in secret, making them search around the perimeter in all directions, making sure that they alerted her if they spotted anymore of those riders. Gandalf had told her there were nine. So far she had only seen four, she had no idea where the other five were, and that worried her immensely.

She knew by no doubt that she was far stronger than any human in Middle Earth, but the ringwraiths weren't human. . . and in that aspect she didn't know who she was dealing with. Or what, to be put more plainly. Gandalf never went into further explanation of what exactly the wraiths were just that there were nine, they had poisonous swords, and a keen sense of smell. The worst part was that it was already getting dark, and she distinctly remembered Gandalf telling her that they were better hunters at night, plus they were drawn to the ring. She cataloged that to her memory to ask Gandalf, if she ever saw him again.

Even before she saw them, she heard the wraiths approach, she screamed for the hobbits to hurry as she threw shuriken and kunai at the riders, not even aiming, all she wanted was to get her friends to the ferry before they were surrounded. "Merry, where is it?"

"There it is!" He cried, pointing a distance away to a small dock with a flat boat.

She rolled her eyes, why were these people so old fashioned?! "Quickly, hurry to the ferry, and what ever you do, don't look back!" She ordered, skidding to a halt and turning to face the riders that were catching up.

The two riders halted in front of Sakura, the horses rearing up as Sakura poured chakra into her hands.

"_Give us the halfling!_" It said menacingly.

A shock of fear ran straight to Sakura's spine as the black rider spoke. It was a fear that had made her knees weak and her teeth nearly chatter. She didn't think she'd ever been in so much fear before in her lifetime. Not even her fight with Sasori of the Sand terrified her as much as the sound of the dark rider speaking. Sakura narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth, her voice shaky as she spoke. "I won't let you take him."

And with that she slammed her hand into the ground, the earth crumbling right at their feet. The cloaked rider screeched in fury, the sound alone halting Sakura's steps, for the fear had come over her again. She didn't know why she was feeling so much terror, but she knew it was not normal.

"Sakura!"

The cry of fear made her turn her head back to see if anything was wrong, only to immediately hear a screech and feel the pain of a sword piercing her shoulder. She cried out in blinding pain, crumbling to her knees. She saw nothing but black dots for a while, the riders kicking her out of the way as they rode to the hobbits. She could hear Frodo and the others calling her name.

She had to get up, she had to protect her friends. She fought to keep her eyes open, but the pain still outnumbered everything, but she clumsily got to her feet and looked to see Frodo jump on to the boat. She smiled and ran to catch up before they got too far. The water was holding back the wraiths, but she needed to get away before they focused their attention back on her.

She ran and put chakra to her feet to run over the water, she was sweating and the pain was getting so severe she feared she'd drown before she made it to them, but when she felt the wood against her feet, she smiled, feeling glad that she managed to keep her word to Gandalf, and protect Frodo.

"I'm alright." She said as they huddled around her right when she fell to her knees.

"You're not alright!" Sam cried, looking at her shoulder. "You should be dead, I don't know much about those dark riders, but I know when someone is stabbed they shouldn't be moving like you were. You're not natural."

She laughed dryly, and blearily stared up at Sam. "Aren't we all just a little bit. . . out of the ordinary?" And with that, she brought chakra to her hands and placed it over her wound. She supposed she should be lucky that it had not been poisoned, or that would have been fatal. She guessed they didn't find her much of a threat, but they had another thing coming. She glared at the water, she was going to take down every last one of them to repay for stabbing her and kicking her to the side as if she was too weak for them to pay attention to. They may be after one thing, but she wasn't going to lie down and let them take Frodo.

Pippin's eyes widened in amazement. "You have to be a wizard to heal yourself like that."

Sakura smiled and shook her head. "Where I'm from; this is no magic, this is just something that we healers learn from intense chakra control and stamina." She had told the hobbits awhile back about where she was from and what her home was like, she even managed to explain what chakra was. Even though they didn't understand it, they took it with stride, and if a question ever rose up she would tell them what she knew and they would be satisfied.

"Do you think I could learn to do something like that?" He asked curiously, watching as the wound completely healed and all that was left was a hole in her shirt and a few blood stains.

She grinned. "I could teach you about medicine and all the herbs that would be good for particular things, unfortunately I can't show you how to heal like I can."

Pippin nodded, not letting anything deter his excitement for learning something new. He'd take what he could get.

Sakura turned serious and stood, looking ahead of them. "How far are we away from Bree?"

"The next crossing is another twenty miles." Merry told her in a serious tone of voice.

She nodded, calculating the distance from horseback to boat in her head. "That should give us enough time then." At that she sat down and pulled her pack off her back. "Why don't you guys have some food, Merry if you just direct me, I can row us there."

Merry looked a little put off. "You need to rest, you've done so much already."

She shook her head and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm completely healed. Go eat." She urged, already shuffling him to sit by Pippin.

Before long the hobbits were all stuffed and Merry had taken the lore again. They were talking about the riders, asking Sakura as many questions as they could ask about what she knew about them, and Frodo and Sam asked why she hadn't told them about it before. "It wasn't a big deal before," she said. "honestly, I was going to tell you once I found out more information. All Gandalf told me was what I already told you. My job is to keep you," she pointed to Frodo. "away from them."

Frodo sighed and looked away, lost as to what to do now.

…

…

…

Sakura walked behind the four hobbits as they went into the Prancing Pony. She kept her hood up so she wouldn't draw attention to her hair. She tuned out the conversation between Frodo and the inn keeper as she looked around, a bunch of men were busy drinking and smoking to their fill. She noted a few suspicious ones staring at them oddly, and put that to the back of her mind to keep an eye on them once they settled. Her green eyes flew over the many faces, until they immediately stopped on a lone man sitting in a corner, she narrowed her eyes at him and she could see from under the hood that he was looking right at her as he smoked his pipe.

That isn't creepy at all. She thought sarcastically as she tuned back into the conversation, noting to keep a specific eye on that man in the corner.

"Gandalf? Gandalf... Ah yes, now I remember a big, pointy hat and a gray beard... Haven't seen him for six months."

Sakura could practically feel Frodo's heart drop at the news, her's had dropped right along with his.

"What do we do now?" Sam asked.

Sakura cleared her throat and motioned to the many tables around them. "We find a seat, and we wait." With that she led them to an empty table against a far wall, keeping the suspicious man always at the corner of her eye.

After a while Sam became equally suspicious as he noticed Sakura continuously staring at the man. "Who is that?"

That directed everyone's attention to Sakura as she blinked out of her daze. "I don't know..." She trailed off, taking a sip of her ale. "But I don't like the way he's been staring at our table."

"Maybe it's because you keep staring at him, hm?" Merry asked into his pint.

Sakura wiggled her nose distastefully. "Whatever the reason, I don't like it."

Frodo had been quiet the whole time, unknowingly to all around him that he was fingering the ring in his hand. It was like he was in a daze, a daze that was telling him to put on the ring, despite the consequences.

Sakura had kept her eyes away from Frodo for just a second when she heard a shout from Pippin at their table. Frodo disappeared. She looked beside her to see that indeed, Frodo was not beside her. Sam and Merry were looking pale as ghosts, being the ones that had witnessed Frodo's sudden disappearance right before their very eyes.

Sakura bit her lip, knowing without a doubt that once Frodo put on that ring, the wraiths would be after them a lot sooner than she would have hoped. She willed Frodo, through prayer, to take off the ring, and fast. Already the hobbits were making a fuss, loudly, of course. And Frodo still had, as of yet, taken off the ring. She searched everywhere she could possibly think of where Frodo could have gone, for when she touched the spot beside her, he was nowhere to be found.

She stood, at the sight of the hooded man, that had been sitting in the corner staring at them, stand and walk swiftly towards the stairs, dragging what appeared to be... Frodo. She was on him quicker than he could ever imagine and had him by the throat, with a kunai placed delicately against his skin. "Explain yourself for grabbing him, and I just might let you live." She growled dangerously, her eyes shining brightly in the light.

The man had held up his hands in surrender, knowing better than to mess with someone with that speed. "I will tell you all you want to know, but not here." He said softly, meeting Sakura's eyes, and imploring her to release him.

Sakura hesitated for a second and then pushed away from the man.

"Come, follow me."

Sakura did as was said, and followed the hooded man. "Come on Frodo."

…

…

…

It was a while before Sam, Merry and Pippin burst through the door, holding candelabras and small knives. Both Sakura and Aragorn, as he called himself, smiled and put away their drawn weapons. "It's okay, Frodo is safe and so am I."

There was a long sigh of relief from the three, worried, hobbits. "We're glad Mr. Frodo is safe." Sam said, walking up to Frodo and clapping him on the back.

Aragorn introduced himself and the hobbits sat quietly listening to what he had already told Sakura and Frodo.

"You can no longer wait for the wizard, they're coming. They are drawn to the rings power, and once you put it on, it had already alerted them to your whereabouts."

Sakura ran a hand through her hair that had been through hell and back. "What must we do? We can't leave, there's only one way out of here."

Aragorn looked out the window and sat down. "We wait."

…

The four hobbits were asleep when Sakura decided to question Aragorn. "What are they?" The sound of them outside the window making her shiver in discomfort and fear.

Aragorn removed his pipe from his mouth. "They were men once. Kings of men. But once Sauron gave them nine rings of power, one by one they'd fallen into darkness."

"What are these rings of power? And why are they so important here?" She asked in confusion.

"It began with the forging of the great rings. Given to each race of man, elves, and dawarves. Sauron, and evil being forged in secret a master ring. It has the power to do great things, evil things. It was forged in the fires of Mount Doom, in Mordor. The one place no one must go, for the orcs will kill you in moments."

"How can I keep them from Frodo?" She asked softly.

"You can't, as long as he has the ring, they will always be hunting him. They can not be destroyed. And those who tried have died."

Sakura looked down at her lap mournfully. "So there's nothing I can do?"

"Your protection is more than enough, my dear." Aragorn stared at her long and hard. "You are not like regular women. You are a warrior, that of which I have not seen before."

"And you are still a mystery. I will share my story, if you share yours." She smiled beseechingly.


	4. Chapter Three

**_Sakura's Fall to Middle Earth_**

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.

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It was early morning when the hobbits, Sakura and Aragorn left Bree, heading towards Rivendell, the house of elves. Which Sakura would like to better say, the wild. Sakura was excited to see what the elves looked like, for her imagination was running rampant and all she could really think of was short, brightly colored toy makers. She was being a little presumptuous, obviously.

She kept her eyes and ears opened to any dangers that could come upon them, knowing that the ringwraiths were probably very angry and were hunting for them even more now that they had escaped their clutches once again. It was very thrilling, Sakura thought, she loved being out on missions when she was in Konoha, and now that she got to explore, new, uncharted territory, it was even more exciting. Not knowing what to expect kept her on her toes and on high alert.

It would be a couple of weeks to Rivendell at the pace they were going, which she didn't mind, she knew that the hobbits were still getting accustomed to moving around and not staying in one place for too long. At one point in their journey they had to go through a bog, which neither she or the hobbits were too happy about.

"Is this really necessary?" Pippin asked at one point, nearly falling face first into the murky water, if Sakura hadn't of grabbed the back of his cloak.

"Yes, Master Pippin."

Sakura blanched as her foot got stuck in the mud, making it ten times harder to walk with gunk in her shoe, the nasty water was up to her knees, and the poor hobbits had it worse, for the water reached their waists, and it was like swimming for them.

She was very nearly shouting with glee when they got back to dry land, only for it to be short lived once it started raining.

"It seems as if they elements of nature are against us." Merry grumbled, looking at the sky distastefully.

Sakura couldn't help but agree. So far they had been through snow, swamps and now a torrential downpour that nearly made her look like a drowned rat. But Aragorn assured them they weren't too far away from Rivendell, and that they had gotten passed all of the bad part. She scoffed mentally, that's what he had said the last time.

"We'll rest there for the night. This use to be the great watchtower of Amon Sul." He pointed out as Sakura walked up beside him.

"How far do you think we've gotten from the ringwraiths?" She asked cautiously.

"I can't be too sure." He said with a shake of his head. "I'll go scout the area, you keep an eye on them." And with that he left them to fend for themselves at the top of the stone pillar.

Sakura paced for a while in the makeshift camp they'd settled in, Frodo sleeping in a corner as the other three hobbits whispered amongst themselves.

"Sakura," Pippin called with a smile. "we were wondering- that is to say, Merry was wondering- oof! Merry, that's not nice." Pippin chastised as he rubbed his offended head. "Anyway, is there a lucky lad for you back at home?"

Sakura closed her eyes and looked out into the open, seeing the sun set and the skies darken. "No... there was once, but he's dead." And that was all she told them. Not wanting to get into depressing details of her love life, or lack thereof.

"Oh," Merry said. "I'm sorry to hear that."

She smiled and shook her head. "Don't be... It's been a long time."

She closed her eyes, technically she didn't tell a lie. She did love someone once, but he didn't die in the sense that he actually died. More like the person he was before, the one she fell in love with, was no more. Now replaced with a hardened shell that was impenetrable. She had loved him for so long and so deeply she had lost sight of what real love was. It had taken her a long few years to actually realize she was in love with the idea of him, rather than the person.

She took in a deep breath of air when she heard it. The screech of the ringwraiths. It sent a terrible chill to her bones that she felt like she could breathe out ice. She turned sharply to see one of them already coming towards a sleeping Frodo. "No! Frodo!" She pounced before she could even think, startling all four of the hobbits, they finally realized what was going on. She had moved so quickly that when the sword came stabbing down on Frodo, she had already rolled them to the far wall.

"Stay here." She ordered softly, dodging a swing of the sword and gave a roundhouse kick to the wraiths side, throwing him solidly off the tower. She bent low to the ground, chakra leveled in her hand as she stood between Frodo and four ringwraiths. She practically gave a feral growl when one stepped forward. "So, you wanna play?" She smiled wickedly. "I'm up for a bit of fun."

"Sakura!" Aragorn shouted, coming up to stand beside her.

"Finally, what took you so long?" She asked, rounding on him with a heated glare.

"No time for questions!" He chastised, blocking a swipe of the wraiths and waving his stick of fire at them, making them shrink back in fear.

Sakura rolled her eyes and dodged a swing from the wraith's blade, swiping her leg under his feet and making him tumble to the ground. She pounced on him and knocked the blade out of his hand, sending the sword skidding to the far side of the tower. As she stood back up she missed the wraith reaching into his cloak and shooting a dart at her. She had no time to think before she stood stock still before she collapsed in a heap on the ground, her whole world being enveloped in dark spots.

The hobbits noticed her fall and called her name, Frodo being the first to come to her aid and moving her into his arms. "Sakura!"

She couldn't speak, but she could feel that she had been poisoned, and it was moving in her system fast. She had half the mind to raise her her hand and place it over the wound on her neck, where the dart had shot her and pour healing chakra to stop the flow of the poison. "F-Frodo." She managed softly, Aragorn already coming to her side after he made the last of the wraiths vanish.

"Sakura," he whispered, pulling the dart from her neck and throwing it to the side. "she's been poisoned, we have to get her out of here." He said frantically, moving her into his arms and lifting her up, carrying her towards the exit of the tower.

"Where are we going?" Frodo cried, following behind Aragorn as the remaining hobbits gathered their things.

"Aragorn," Sakura said softly, catching his attention. "put me down."

Aragorn gave her a look of disbelief. "Sakura, I have to get you to help." He was worried for the girl, he hadn't known her long, but they had grown quite close during their journey, they had a lot in common.

She smiled encouragingly. "J-Just trust me."

After a bit of a mental argument, he finally let her down on the ground, holding her propped up against his chest. The hobbits surrounded them, out of breath, and eyes watering from the worry of their dear friend, who they thought of as a sister.

Sam knelt down at her side and took her hand, noting how she had gone cold and voiced it to Aragorn.

"Sakura, we can not delay, you are growing weaker by the minute." Aragorn said, touching the side of her face, and moving the wet strands of hair out of her eyes.

She smiled and shook her head, willing the bones in her body to stop seizing up so she could heal herself. "I've already stopped the flow of t-the poison." She groaned out, taking gasps of air. "I just need to stabilize myself to fully be able to heal myself."

Aragorn shook his head in doubt. "Sakura, this is a poison that has never been in your world, you do not know what you are doing."

Sakura closed her eyes, and shakily drew her hand to her neck, holding it there steady as she brought chakra to her neck, she could feel the poison through her veins as she tried to draw it out, she noticed that it was different from what she's seen in her world, but she was the best poison extractor in all of Konoha and wasn't Tsunade's apprentice for nothing. She felt the poison fight her, but she would let up, she needed to be cautious though of letting it seep through her chakra and go to another part of her system.

She started to feel the affects from the poison take its toll on her when the last bit was removed and she handed a vile to Pippin. "Hold that out for me, Pippin." She said softly, the poison floating above her hand with the chakra still holding it there. There was barely even there, but she knew how dangerous it was.

Pippin did as she told and uncapped the vile, holding it out to her hands. She put the last bit of poison into the vile, and then collapsed, her chakra dying out and her body going limp against Aragorn.

Aragorn shook her, trying to bring her back to consciousness, but to no avail. After removing the poison and bringing her body to complete exhaustion, Sakura fell into darkness.

…

…

…

"Sakura..."

Why was everything so dark?

"... Sakura."

Who is that?

"Sakura I swear to kami if you don't wake up, I'm going to throw all your medical texts in the fire!" Ino shouted into Sakura's ear as she tried to wake her best friend up. Sakura had practically been in a self induced coma for three hours. She wasn't even in her home, in bed. No, she was in her office. Her dark, and extremely unkempt office.

Sakura groaned, unable to fully grasp the situation around her. She opened her bleary green eyes and looked up at her friend in confusion. "I-Ino?" She asked with a stutter, unable to believe she was speaking in her language again.

"Who else would it be forehead?" Ino asked sarcastically as she threw open the curtains, bringing the sunlight into the room.

Sakura shut her eyes tightly, her eyes watering from the unexpected light. "Am I dreaming."

Ino scoffed and marched back over to Sakura. "Not anymore, Tsunade's furious, we've looking all over the place for you. No one even thought about checking your office, thinking you were working. But no, here I find you passed out on a book."

What? "What?"

Ino cocked her head to the side and raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow. "What's the matter with you, are you sick?" She asked the rosette, feeling her forehead. "You feel all clammy. Maybe there was a reason to you sleeping in, are you sick." She placed the back of her fingers against her cheek.

Sakura looked around her, unable to comprehend anything. Was everything just a dream? Sakura shook her head and placed a hand in her hair. "This can't be..."

"Sakura, come on, what's going on, you look as if you've seen a ghost." Ino placed her hands on her hips.

"Ino, what day is it?" Sakura asked.

The blonde gave her a skeptic look. "It's Wednesday, remember, the day you were supposed to meet the Kazekage and give him a good reason why he should stock up on more medic-nin. Preferably our medic-nin, geez, did you hit your head or something?" Ino asked incredulously.

Sakura shook her head and stood, gathering her things. Nothing made sense anymore, the last thing she remembered was being in Aragorn's arms after removing the poison and passing out. It was so real... How could she have a dream that vivid?

Ino tapped her foot against the floor. "Come on Sakura, the Hokage and Kazegake are waiting!

* * *

Sakura walked into her apartment in a daze, having been busy all day taking its toll on her, she hadn't even had time to think things through of what happened while she was in Middle Earth... She had been there for months, met so many people, felt so many things. How could all of that be a dream?

She collapsed into her bed, snuggling into her pillow. She stopped and looked out the window. Everyone seemed to think she'd been gone for hours, but to her it was. . . forever practically. What kind of jutsu was she under, if it even was a jutsu, who would cast it over her? She was glad to be home, it was what she wanted in the first place, so... Why did she want to go back?

Maybe it was her inner devotion to always completing a task, or the fact that she left Frodo when she promised to keep him safe, now he was alone with Aragorn, who she didn't know quite well, but still trusted, if that made any sense. But if it was a dream, well, that was one hell of a dream.

She shook her head and groaned in confusion. She puffed out a breath of air and closed her eyes, feeling exhausted from the days events. She just needed a little rest... that was all.

* * *

**A/N: Yes, short chapter, I know. As you may know something weird might have happened, I accidentally deleted this story, how I managed to do that I do not know, but I did. So all the favs, reviews and follows are all gone... sad face. I understand if you don't want to go through all that again. I promise I won't delete it again. Thank you. Love all your support, hope you liked the little surprise. **


	5. Chapter Four

_**Sakura's Fall to Middle Earth**_

_**Chapter Four**_

_**. **_

_**. **_

_**.**_

There was noise... Noise she couldn't make out, but it was there all the same, despite the fact she couldn't make it out. It was loud, and obnoxious, which made her think it was Naruto coming to bother her after his return from his mission. Sakura felt her head and groaned before she opened her eyes, clearly feeling the affects of exhaustion from the night previous, she knew that she had worked hard at the hospital, but she didn't expect to feel this bad, for some reason she was in so much pain and her shoulder hurt like crazy.

"Hush now, Pippin! She's waking up."

Yes, that's what had woken her up, the sound of Pippin's chattering, not Naruto's.

…

Wait... Pippin?

Before any of the hobbits knew what was happening Sakura had shot up in her bed, screaming before any of them could warn her about sudden movement, she was still recovering from the affects of poison that had been released from her system. Sakura sucked in air through her teeth and grabbed her shoulder, looking down to see that she had started bleeding and that her chest was bound in bandages. She blushed and raised the blanket to her chin. She looked around and couldn't recognize where she was.

She was confused to say the least. She didn't know what was going on, she had spent a whole day in Konoha, now she was back in Middle Earth, what the heck was going on. Which was a dream, her day in Konoha or the half year spent in Middle Earth? She didn't know, nor had she the mind to think more about it, her shoulder was killing her and she had a bunch of hobbits scuffling to make sure she was alright.

"Calm now, dear ones, let her adjust to her surroundings." Said a familiar voice.

Sakura looked up through teary eyes, and saw Gandalf standing there, looking the same as he always did, just with a smile on his face. "Gandalf," she said in wonder and happiness, so glad to see that he was well, and appeared to be as fit as a fiddle, though she could see the hidden worry in his eyes. "you're alright!" She managed a small smile at the older man as she he reached out and patted her head.

"My dear girl, it is I who should be the one to say that to you. You were the one that protected this young hobbit and saved him from a Mogul blade. You are very brave." He nodded in thanks to her and patted Frodo's shoulder. "You are very lucky you did not perish where you had stood."

"I never got to thank you for what you've done, Sakura. I have no way of thanking you." Frodo said with sadness.

Sakura rubbed his cheek comfortingly. "Your safety is all that matters to me. Besides, I am use to doing things like these, you are my friend, and that is all the thanks that I need." She reassured him, struggling to maneuver herself into a more comfortable position. "Where are we?" She asked finally, after looking around her room, keeping the blanket tucked around her protectively, knowing that she wasn't showing anything, but wanted to keep some of her dignity intact.

The room she was in was beautiful, really, she had a wonderful view of tall trees and a waterfall. Her room was intricately made with dark woods and pale ivory. It was really something magnificent to the eye, and Sakura felt very honored to be in a place of such beauty. She felt a calming wash over her as the slight breeze blew in from the open window and she wondered how long she had been recovering, for it was only a day she spent in Konoha.

Gandalf smiled and leaned against his staff. "Why you are in Rivendell, the house of Elrond. Your healer, and a good friend to have." He winked at her mysteriously and motioned to the door, where stood Aragorn and woman and a man she had not met before.

"Aragorn, look, Sakura has awakened." Pippin exclaimed excitedly, grabbed Sakura's hand and holding it.

"I see that Master. Pippin." Aragorn said, coming to Sakura's side and taking her other hand. "We were very worried about you, you gave us all quite a scare, and I warn you not to do it again."

She flushed and ignored the way her heart leaped at the way he looked at her. Good lord, he was half her age, maybe more. Snap out of it. She chastised herself mentally.

"Sakura," Gandalf said. "This is Master Elrond, and Lady Arwen, his daughter." They both bowed to her and she did the same.

"Thank you, for all that you have done for me. I have no way of thanking you more." She said hastily, wringing her hands together nervously, the first time being in the presence of elves. It was very intimidating, they looked so... bright. It was like looking at living dolls, or something to that effect.

Elrond held up his hand and shook his head. "Do not thank us, Sakura, you have done more for all of us, then we could ever deem to express. Please, make yourself at home here. Rest is all that we ask in return."

Sakura nodded and looked down. "What happened?" She asked suddenly remembering the Ringwraiths.

They all exchanged grim looks, and Sakura's curiosity was beginning to reach its peak. "We thought we lost you." Sam said with a sorrowful expression that seemed to match all of the hobbits'.

"The poison brought on by the wraith, the King of the wraiths, could have very well turned you into one of them. Though," Gandalf looked around uncertain. "we do not really have history of a woman ever turning into a wraith. But you were very close to being lost into darkness, now we are just happy to see you well."

Arwen walked up to Sakura and touched the ends of her hair. "You are a unique one," she smiled. "you are very strong and wise for your age." She closed her eyes and turned to walk back to her father's side. "You are not sure how you came to Middle Earth, and you do not know how to get back to the world you have come from. That is what Gandalf has told us." She commented smiling at the old wizard.

Sakura didn't want to tell them she thought they were all just a figment of her imagination, so she kept what she knew to herself and nodded along with what Arwen said. "Yes, my lady. I-I do not know how I got here." She blushed at her stutter, wondering why the words were coming out all scrambled, as if she hadn't ever spoken the language before.

Elrond nodded. "In due time, we will find where it is you came from, but now, you must be famished and we have a lot to discuss when you are well."

Sakura straightened, she so very much wanted to get out of bed. "I feel well now, please don't make me stay in bed, not when there is so much to talk about and so little time it seems. I know the enemy is moving, and the longer we wait, the harder it will be to keep Frodo safe." She was never one to beat around the bush.

They all stared at her in wonder, but couldn't help but agree. "Very well, after you have freshened up, we will hold a council."

…

…

…

Sakura saw Frodo fidgeting in his seat as a group of men and elves and dwarves alike all sat in a circle, the ring in the center. She placed her hand over his in comfort and smiled in encouragement as he settled. "Do not worry, Frodo. Everything will be fine." She whispered in his ear.

She sensed Sam, Pippin and Merry each hiding in their respective places of bushes and pillars, they were so obvious in their places that she needn't chakra to sense them. Gandalf was on one side of Frodo while she on the other, Aragorn next to her and Arwen seated between him and her father.

"Friends, you have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor, either you unite, or you fall." Elrond spoke sagely, looking around at the many ones gathered together, strangers they all were, Sakura noted, but just like any time of war, distant lands gathered together to rule over the threat that wished to annihilate them. She sighed inwardly. Things were the same no matter where you were.

"Middle Earth stands on the brink of destruction, none can escape it." He directed his attention to the ring, and motioned towards it. All eyes were practically drawn to it. Then a man, she did not know the name of, stood and started making his way towards it, muttering things to them that she did not see important enough to pay attention to, all she knew was that if he touched the ring, he'd be doomed forever. Or, so she thought.

All of a sudden, just before the man's finger touched the ring, Gandalf stood and spoke in a tongue that chilled her to the bone, much like how the Ringwraiths did when they spoke to her. The area around them grew dark as Gandalf's voice rose and the trees grew windy and the leaves rustled in discontent. The elves were grimacing and Frodo was one of the worst of them, he was practically flinching in his spot. She knew that whatever Gandalf was saying, the ring was saying it back, a dark voice rose over Gandalf's, and Elrond looked discomforted as Gandalf finished.

"The ring is altogether evil." Gandalf said, walking back to his chair. "It should not be marveled at."

Sakura couldn't help but agree.

"It is a gift." The man said, Boromir, she had learned when Elrond called out his name just before Gandalf had spoken such a dark language. "A gift to the foes of Mordor."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the man, her knuckles turning white in annoyance at his foolish audacity, did he not hear what Gandalf and Elrond were trying to say?

"You cannot wield it," Aragorn said as Boromir went on in a tirade. "no one can. The ring answers to Sauron alone, it has no other master."

Thank you. Sakura thought, looking up at the heavens.

"What would a ranger know of the matter." Boromir sneered.

Sakura's chair broke right under her hands, that did it.

"This is no mere ranger!"

Sakura paused in mid-launch to see a tall elf, with long blond hair stand and direct his fiery gaze towards Boromir.

"He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance. He is the heir to the throne of Gondor."

Sakura blinked out of her stupor and stared at Aragorn who looked none too happy about this news the elf spoke of. She didn't know exactly what any of what the elf had spoken of meant, but it put the other man back in his place, though he did have a few more choice words to say, and in his seat.

Sakura looked down at the split wood in her hands, and most of the attention was either on her or on Aragorn. But Elrond was more curious as to how Sakura broke his chair with her bare hands.

"Sakura, I see you do not agree with what Boromir has spoken of." Elrond said, standing up and taking the wood from her hands and glancing at her unblemished skin. "There is more about you than you let on." He smiled wisely at her.

Sakura crossed her arms. "I've seen what effect this ring has had on people, even me. It is dangerous, no matter if you think you could use it for good, it is useless, an evil wielder calls for an evil object." Her voice was strong and proud, leaving no room for argument.

"Aragorn and Sakura are right, we cannot use it." Gandalf said, back in his seat and his staff in his hands.

Frodo was watching all of this intrigued.

"You have only one choice, the ring must be destroyed. It must be taken into Mordor and cast into the fiery chasm from whence it came."

Sakura heard all this, but her eyes were held on Frodo, who looked deeply troubled, she met eyes with Gandalf and noticed his concern, before she knew it all of them were up on their feet arguing over who was going to take the ring to Mordor. She kept herself seated, and a comforting arm around Frodo as he continued to hold his head. Gandalf was yelling at the top of his lungs at the foolish beings who thought they were more better than the other to take the ring.

This was why she started to stand, just to get them to shut up and think wisely.

"I will take it!"

Her head turned sharply in Frodo's direction, shocked to see him standing there, and looking so firm in his decision. After he said it a few more times, everyone grew quiet. "Frodo," She spoke, walking towards him and leaning down on her knee to meet his eyes. "you do not have to do this." His best interest in her mind.

Frodo smiled and then looked back over at everyone. "I will take the ring to Mordor. Though, I do not know the way."

"I will help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins." Gandalf said with a smile smile as he placed his hand over Frodo's shoulder.

"And I will come with you." Sakura said, standing on the other side of Frodo. "I can't let you go off on some whirlwind adventure without someone like me to protect you." She winked at him and crossed her arms over her chest.

"And what can a mere woman, no less, an outsider to these lands, do?" Boromir said, towering over Sakura.

She glared at him and clenched her fists.

"Easy..." Aragorn said in her ear as he stood to stand beside her. "You have my sword." He said to Frodo.

"And you have my bow." The blond elf said.

"And my ax." The dwarf said, who before had no real liking towards elves.

"You carry the fate of us all little one." Boromir said, walking towards Frodo.

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Oi!" Sam shouted. "Mr. Frodo's not going anywhere without me."

"I was wondering when you were going to show yourself." Sakura smiled, wrapping her arms around the shoulders of Sam and Frodo.

"Hey, we're coming too!"

"And here are the others!" Sakura shouted with glee as Pippin and Merry ran to stand beside her.

Arwen laughed by her father, knowing that with Sakura around things were going to be a lot different for all these men.

"Ten companions." Elrond said, his eyes traveling to all of them in wonder. "So be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring."

"Great!" Pippin exclaimed with a smile, looking up at Elrond. "Where are we going?"

Sakura smacked her forehead and everyone laughed.

…

…

…

Sakura was talking with Arwen as she got ready for her journey. "I see you are holding off going home, now." Arwen said, helping Sakura tie her shirt. She had gathered together a new set of clothing, a long sleeved shirt that tied at the waist and it reached in length to mid-thigh, and some cream colored tight pants. She wore leather boots that were weather proofed, her old ones had been confiscated and Arwen warned that open toed boots would not do well in snow, for it was already coming to winter and it was beginning to grow quite chilly.

Sakura looked down at herself, covered in new elven garb, and sharp new daggers and vials of her homemade poison to take with her. "I do not know what has happened to me, but I had sworn to protect Frodo, and I've grown quite fond of being here. Home has not called to me... So I shall stay until it is my time to part."

Arwen nodded. "Take care of them, you are most probably the voice of reason they'll need."

"There's nothing like a woman to keep men in line." Sakura giggled behind her hand, her bright eyes landing on a solemn looking Arwen. "What is the matter?"

"You must promise me that you will also protect, my Aragorn." Arwen whispered, looking down at her hands.

Sakura blinked, finally comprehending. "You and Aragorn..." She smiled and took Arwen's hands. "I promise, I will protect him and watch him until I breathe my last breath."

Arwen's eyes widened. "Let's hope that does not happen!"

Sakura nodded in agreement.

"Oh," Arwen said, looking down. "they are getting ready. You should go down there." She instructed, handing Sakura her bags and helping her put on her cloak. "You have quite a journey ahead of you."

Sakura nodded and turned to face Arwen. "I'll keep my promise."

Arwen smiled gratefully and tilted her head. "Thank you."

Sakura smiled back and then leaped out of the window, Arwen's eyes widening in horror before she was falling down at top speed. Arwen shouted in surprise drawing the attention of everyone down below, and there were gasps of shock from all as Sakura sailed down, the wind blowing through her hair and deftly missing limbs of trees.

"Sakura!" Frodo shouted in fear. Only to blink in surprise as Sakura landed deftly in the middle of them.

She raised her head, meeting the blue eyes of her friend, Frodo and smiled reassuringly. "No worries," she said, standing and shaking out her muscles. "haven't done something like that in a while. Didn't think it would actually work." She grinned teasingly at them all.

Elrond raised a brow. "Much we do not know about you, indeed."

Sakura waited beside Aragorn as everyone gathered to bid them farewell. Elrond blessed them and then they waited for Frodo to lead them on their way. Frodo turned and faced both her and Gandalf. "It's going to be a while before we get back to the Shire, isn't it?"

Gandalf nodded, and Sakura gave and encouraging smile. "Don't worry, Frodo. You'll be home before you know it."

And with that, Frodo nodded and then started making it towards the outer parts of Rivendell. The nine following behind them, and the world ahead. Sakura stayed close to Aragorn and Gandalf, knowing that they were all probably walking into there peril, but she not having the heart to tell such things to Frodo or any of the other hobbits. It was best to let things go as they may, and keep her friends as safe as she possibly could.

* * *

"So," Legolas said, staring down at Sakura as they traveled. She had learned both Legolas' name and Gimli's through Elrond back in Rivendell, already they had been traveling for a couple days, no one talking much, just trying to get as far as they could before they ran into any trouble. "you are a warrior among your people?"

Sakura looked up at Legolas, and tried not to blush, he was so. . . pretty. No, that wasn't the right word, hansom didn't do him justice. He was so . . . something that it was hard to describe him. "Yes, so to speak. I come from very far away."

Sakura and Gandalf both agreed to keep her whereabouts just between her and the hobbits. She didn't want them to thing she was some sort of enemy or something else of the sort. She would tell them when the time came, just not right away.

Legolas nodded in understanding. "Do you have much experience with archery?"

Sakura looked at his choice of weapon and blinked. "Can't say that I do."

"Well it's a good thing, useless for someone to think that elves have the best means when it comes to battle." Gimli spoke up and showed his ax to Sakura. "Direct, and with your bear hands is the way to go, young miss." He smiled at her through his beard, and gave a pointed look at Legolas who just glared.

"And I suppose having no tact is the way to go, also?" Legolas said with an air of dignity.

Gimli spluttered and Sakura couldn't help but giggle behind her hand. Since they started, Gimli and Legolas did nothing but argue amongst each other. It was very amusing to all that allowed themselves to look upon the small rivalry between the two. Sakura enjoyed watching them, knowing that they didn't mean anything by it, but they did a good job of keeping things light in the days as the drew closer and closer to their destination.

…

…

…

Sakura didn't know how far Mordor was Gandalf has said something about directions, but she knew it was a long way away; she was getting tired of walking for days on end without a sign of life as far as the eye could see. They hadn't ran into any travelers, but she could admit the scenery was beautiful. They had started to travel in the mountains and it was really something to behold, the wind was cool and fresh and the grass was green as far as the eye could see. They hadn't come into any bad weather, yet, thankfully.

"Do you miss it?" Sam asked her at one point, quietly and not disturbing anyone.

"What?" She asked curiously.

"Your home."

Sakura paused, she had come to the conclusion that her day in Konoha had only been a dream. She hadn't returned to Konoha since they started their journey, so she figured it was just wishful thinking in her mind. Though, sometimes, when they would rest for the night and she was awake in her sleeping bag or keeping watch. She would wish to be home and with her friends.

She missed Ino and Naruto greeting her with smiles everyday and treating her to shopping sprees or ramen. She missed everything there was about home, but she didn't want them to think that she wasn't happy being with them either. "Sometimes." She said softly, smiling down at Sam who had become quite fond of the pony they use for their travels.

"I miss the Shire all the time..." Sam said with a frown.

Sakura looked at the hobbit and wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

"I thought once we'd come to Rivendell that would be it, but I didn't want to leave Mr. Frodo and have him bear such a heavy burden all on his own."

"You're a good friend, Sam. Don't ever forget that, Frodo, all of us really are lucky to have you." She gave him a reassuring smile and squeezed his shoulder encouragingly.

…

…

…

At one point in their journey they stopped and cooked a meal on top of a flat surfaced mountain. Boromir was training Pippin and Merry to fight and Gimli was telling Gandalf about traveling down into the mines of Moria. She didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about, but she wandered off farther away and had a look around. She had a bad feeling that she couldn't pinpoint and Legolas seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her.

"You sense it too." He stated, coming up beside her.

Sakura nodded and stared off into the distance. "Somethings not right... I feel as if we are being watched." She scanned the area with her eyes. "Go warn the others," she ordered. "somethings coming!" She looked back and watched Legolas shout something to the others, who started gathering their things. She jumped off a boulder and ran towards both Pippin and Merry who were scrambling around.

"Quickly you two," she said, grabbing them and lifting them as she jumped into the bushes. "be quiet." She whispered as everyone else hid.

There was silence, and then they heard it. Squawking and shrieking from above. They all watched as black flew above them and circled the area around them. Sakura could feel Pippin shaking and comforted him by holding him close and whispering in his ear. "It's alright, Pip."

They all clamored from their hiding places, the hobbits a little worse for wear. "What were those things? Birds?" Sakura asked, looking around them and patting Merry and Pippin's heads affectionately.

"Crebain, from Dunland." Legolas said darkly, glaring at the departing figures of the Crebain.

"We have to keep moving." Aragorn said, gathering their things.

"They are spies of Saruman, the way south is being watched." Gandalf said with a sigh, gathering his hat and staff.

Sakura sighed, knowing that for a while they weren't going to have any peace as long as Frodo had the ring. Suffice to say, missions in Konoha were a lot different from their mission here in Middle Earth, for one thing, they didn't move at top speed like she could, and another was that they had more ground to cover and so little means of transportation, and she was adamant in refusing to ride a horse.

We must take the pass to Caradhras."

Sakura looked up at the snowy mountains and gave a mournful grown. Someone just kill her now.

…

…

…

Sakura sneezed and pushed her hair out of the way as the wind blew stronger in her face. They were finally on the mountains, traveling through the snow, Frodo was at her and Aragorn's side, while the other three hobbits were up ahead with Gandalf, Gimli and Legolas. Sakura stayed close to Frodo, for she noticed that he was breathing rather hard and he was growing sluggish. When he tripped and fell face first and started rolling was when she cried out in surprise as Aragorn caught him before he tumbled any further.

"Frodo," she said softly, reaching out and feeling his forehead. "you're burning up!" She exclaimed, reaching behind her into her pouch and pulling out some leaves. "Here, sniff these, they'll awaken your senses. Do you feel drowsy, any pain?" She was rambling when Frodo regained his frame of mind and reached for his neck, feeling around it and missing the hard metal of his necklace.

Aragorn was staring hard at Boromir as he raised the ring to eye level. Sakura turned and stared at Boromir also. She placed a hand on her daggers, ready to attack if need be. She didn't trust Boromir, and she didn't know why. He didn't show any ill will towards any of them, though he wasn't too keen on the fact that a woman was joining them on their quest, thinking she would just slow them down. She inwardly snorted, glaring outwardly as Frodo scrambled to a stand and held out his hand.

"Boromir, give Frodo the ring." Aragorn said sternly.

Boromir was dangling the ring in his hand, looking at it and muttering things to himself.

"Boromir," Sakura said, snapping him out of his stance. "this is Frodo's burden. . . not yours." She said, standing firmly behind Frodo.

Boromir, looked down once again then handed Frodo the ring.

Frodo took it hurriedly and placed it around his neck and under his shirt quickly.

Sakura turned him around and pulled his cloak tighter around his neck. "Do you need to rest, the herbs I gave you perked you up a bit, but it won't last. I can give you some medicine if you'd like." She pulled out a small vile full of pills. "These are from my home, they'll help you."

The hobbit stared at the pills for a long while before he nodded. "I trust you."

She smiled and took one out and gave it. "Chew it, it'll taste bitter, but it should break your fever in no time."

...

...

...

As the snow blew at her from all directions, her grip on Pippin tightened as she walked on top of the snow much like how Legolas was doing, she was getting tired of seeing her friends struggle. They had made it almost to the very top of the mountain and there was a blizzard blowing from all directions, and she could see the wall of snow her friends was walking through was becoming too much for even them. "I have an idea, but I need you all to stand back against the mountain!" She shouted over the blizzard's winds.

She walked to the wall of the mountain and brought a minimal amount of chakra to her fist, and with a shout of strength she punched the side of the mountain, and watched as it shook and then relieved them of the hindering snow. She wiped her hands and looked proudly at her handy work. "There, that should do it for a while." She smiled and started to reach for Pippin again when she felt the shaking of the mountain. She was sure she hadn't put too much of her strength into her punch, so there wouldn't be an avalanche.

Legolas reached for Sakura's waist to hold her steady. "I hear a voice off in the distance." He shouted through the wind to Gandalf.

"It's Saruman!" Gandalf explained, falling against the wall as snow started falling from the top and caving over them.

Gandalf held his staff firmly in his hands as Sakura watched him say things she didn't understand. The mountain seemed to come alive as more snow fell from above their heads, without the help of Legolas she feared she would have fallen already.

There was a loud noise and they all looked up. She hadn't had time to think before Legolas slammed her against the wall of the mountain and then darkness as snow fell over them. She immediately started to dig and find Pippin as she reached the top and took a gasp of breath. Snow covered her from head to foot and she was freezing to the bone.

"We can't stay here much longer, the little ones will catch their deaths out here!" Boromir shouted, and Sakura reluctantly agreed.

"We should not waste our time here, we should go under, to the mines of Moria." Gimli exclaimed indignantly.

Sakura knew that was the last thing that Gandalf wanted to do, but she couldn't help but agree that any place was better than freezing to death.

"We'll let Frodo decide." Gandalf said softly.

Frodo was quiet and he met eyes with Sakura who was holding a shivering Pippin. "... We'll go into the mines." Was what he finally said.

Sakura saw the dread enter Gandalf's eyes as they turned and started making their way down the mountain. She helped Pippin steady himself as he shuffled towards Merry and Boromir. She slowed in her movements and walked close to Gandalf. "There is something you are not saying." She gave him a pointed look as she watched.

Gandalf looked down at her and pursed his lips. "In due time..." He whispered, taking the lead and walking ahead of Sakura, who followed behind rather reluctantly.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so I'm having a little trouble breaking away from the movie... sue me. I am going to change things up in the Mines of Moria, this is what I've been most excited about. Though, that is all I'm going to tell you. Please don't give up on me and continue to read this story. I will try much harder to break away from the movie and book. I hope you noticed the slight changes that I did add in this chapter. **


	6. Chapter Five

_**Sakura's Fall to Middle Earth**_

_**Chapter. Five**_

* * *

Sakura sat by the fire and looked over the map of Middle Earth, seeing how big of an expanse of traveling they were going to be doing just to get to the mines of Moria. Sakura almost sighed in exasperation, but didn't want to disturb anyone of her friends that had fallen asleep, she was on watch duty for the last quarter of the night before she had to awaken everyone and be on the move again. They had been walking for days, hardly without any rest, for Saruman's spies were always watching and following.

Gandalf had early stated that they should come to resting place near the end of Caradhras. Where the trees were tall and cold was less likely to chill them to the bone. She looked at the gooseflesh on her arms and scoffed. It was cold as hell out there and she had half the mind to kick a rock at the old wizards head just for saying that the "chill will not hit us here". "Not hit us, my ass." She grumbled to herself out loud.

She saw Pippin shuffle in his sleep, she envied him, really. He was able to sleep through anything, while she hadn't slept for days, only staying on her feet by over consumption of soldier pills... Which, regrettably, she was running out of. She grabbed for her bag and pulled out some of her herbs and a little notebook she always kept with her and wrote some things down with a tiny pencil. There was many medicines she was able to make with all that nature had to give. Middle Earth was booming with medicinal herbs that she didn't know existed. Of course, they were just a series of balms that she had made during the nights where she was especially restless.

There was a loud snore from Gimli, she could bet the whole forest could hear how loud he was snoring. Even cute, quiet Frodo was snoring. Of course, not as loudly as Gimli, but a snore was a snore nonetheless. The only one that hardly looked to be asleep was Gandalf, who slept with his eyes open... That took her a little while to get accustomed too. It was weird, and not natural, but nothing in her life was normal, which she slowly had to come to terms with.

She bowed her head with a burst of air, life was not going according to plan. She scribbled something on her notepad and let her mind wander away for a little bit, but keeping her senses alert just in case something dangerous came to disturb their makeshift camp.

She sometimes thought back on Sam's question, of whether she missed home. Of course she did. But as the weeks passed, and no more dreams of returning home came, her view of returning ceased to come up in her mind, to where she almost believed that she wasn't as homesick as she would have expected to be. It was peculiar, really. She got the sense of how Sasuke must have felt when he left the village. Of course, he left on purpose, and she practically fell out of the sky. As Frodo liked to recall it. But, either way, being out, journeying the wide world... It felt good. Not to be misunderstood, she missed her home and friends just as much as Naruto would miss his daily meals of ramen every hour.

With the threat of war behind her and nothing much to do in Konoha anymore but continue to help the building committee repair a new and improved version of Konoha, Sakura rather enjoyed the change of scenery. She was much more worried about the people she had grown close to, now, in this world. Frodo and the other hobbits had become her close friends. She'd grown to love and respect them, and if she had a chance to help all she could, then by hell or high water she was going to do it!

She stared at the fire for a long moment when she heard it. The sound of breathing, no more than a few yards away. If she were anyone else, say someone who wasn't paying attention, she would have missed it. She bet if Legolas had been awake and alert, he would have heard it too. But she digressed. The sound of breathing was low, and throaty. She heard the footsteps grow closer, a twig snapped, a bush moved. These were the things she was hearing as she reached for her kunai at her leg, her back was towards the intruder, who seemed to think she was of no threat, or surely he would have more stealth.

"_The thieves._" It hissed.

The hair on the back of her neck stood as the words were whispered into her ears. She swiftly turned, swinging the kunai in the voice's general direction, spinning around in her place, only to hit air. She was breathing hard and her chest was pounding a mile a minute. Her eyes searched everywhere they could see to find the thing that had come so close to her. How did she not notice it?

"_The filthy little thieves!_"

The voice was behind her again, so she turned, struggling to her feet she stumbled around as she tried to search for the intruder. She was telling herself to focus, for the dark was hiding a lot more things that she would have noticed in the day. She stumbled back against the ledge of the hill they were atop of, thinking that would keep her safe from any attacks from behind. What she didn't consider was the full on frontal attack of a creature launching itself at her in mid-air.

She screamed, stabbing the creature in the arm, making him scream in anger and pain, as his long fingers wrapped around her neck just as they started to fall backwards into the depths of darkness at the end of the hill.

Her scream had alerted the others and they had risen just in time to see Sakura and an unknown being fall before their very eyes.

"Sakura!" Frodo shouted in fear, running to the ledge, seeing nothing but darkness.

Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas rose with their weapons at the ready, calling for the hobbits to stay with Gandalf as they ran down the hill in search for Sakura.

Pippin looked at Gandalf fearfully. "What was that?"

Gandalf pursed his lips and leaned against his staff, his blue eyes meeting Frodo's terrified ones. "That was the creature, Gollum."

Frodo's eyes widened. "Gollum?!"

The three hobbits were lost, not knowing who the creature was.

Gandalf nodded. "He's been following us for three days."

…

…

…

Sakura fell with a thump on the hard ground, the wind knocked out of her as she had landed on her back. She gasped for air as the creature still held tight to her windpipe. She grit her teeth and slammed her fist multiple times into his head, her other hand surging chakra to her hand that was clasped to his wrist, she heard the snap and then the creature was off with a terrifying screech. She blinked the spots out of her eyes from lack of oxygen and took mouthfuls of air as she scurried back against a tree as the howls of pain from the creature grew louder as he held on to his wrist from when she broke it.

She could do nothing but watch, she had never seen anyone quite like him before, and from where she was from that was saying something. He was quite pathetic really, in a pitiable kind of way. She felt bad for him, even though he attacked her and tried to strangle her. "Who are you!" She said sternly, standing over the creature and holding a chakra scalpel to his throat, her eyes glowed dangerously as she heard Aragorn and the others call out her name. She turned at the sound of their voices for a split second, and when she turned back, the creature was gone.

Aragorn suddenly broke through the brush and came up to her in a jog, he grasped her shoulders and looked her over. "Are you alright?"

Legolas came up soon after and fixed his eyes on the bruising on her neck, his hand reached and touched the tender area and Sakura held his gaze a bit longer than was necessary before she finally looked away at the sound of Gimli who struggled through the bushes and wound up falling a minute later. She held in a laugh and without having to think about it reached up and healed the bruises on her neck.

"I'm fine, no worries." She reassured them, wiping at her brow to check for any blood from when she hit her head. "What was that?" She asked the three, looking around to see if she could sense anything close by, though it was useless, without any chakra, besides her's, her senses were lessened greatly.

"I believe we must ask Gandalf, maybe he would know. I hadn't gotten a good look at the creature." Legolas said, even with his heightened eyesight the darkness still shrouded the area.

Aragorn took Sakura's arm, still worried about the young girl, and led her back up the hill. With, of course, protests from Sakura that she was fine and he didn't need to fret.

She limped back up to camp with Legolas and Aragorn still crowding her; she felt it best to just let them be. As soon as she was in sight of the campfire, four little hobbits surrounded her legs and was asking her many questions. "Sakura, are you alright?" Frodo said over them, looking more worried than the rest if that were even possible.

Sakura smiled and nodded, tapping her temple. "Yes, I'm fine. Nothing can daunt me, well, except this bump on my head, but it'll heal in no time."

"Why don't you just use your magic?" Pippin piped in.

Sakura shrugged. "I need to conserve my energy." She said, putting it more simply.

Gandalf walked up to Sakura and placed a hand on top of her head. "That was quite a tumble you took, my dear girl. Maybe you should sit down for a while, Boromir has taken up watch, just up that ridge, and we decided to keep the fire put out, so we don't attract anymore attention than necessary. The moon will have to be our guide for the night." He said wisely, leading the group back to the middle of the camp.

"Who was that creature that attacked Sakura?" Legolas asked, coming to stand by the rosette, placing his arm around her shoulders as she worked to sitting down, feeling dizzy all of a sudden. She thanked him quietly and used him as leverage to getting back to the ground.

Gandalf sat down with his staff on a boulder. "I'm afraid that was the creature we all feared would find us."

Sakura blinked, not knowing what the older man was talking about.

"It was Gollum, then." Aragorn stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "Just as I had suspected before. He had been trailing us."

"Yes, Aragorn. Though, I do not know if he is a spy of Saruman or not, regardless we should stay on our guard more than ever. Saruman has eyes everywhere." Gandalf said solemnly.

"Why don't we kill the beast and be done with it?" Gimli said in exasperation.

Sakura looked away. "I tried... He's too pathetic to kill. If you saw him, you'd understand what I mean."

"Yes," Gandalf agreed with a nod. "he is quite pitiable indeed. I fear his story in all of this is not over, though I do not know where he begins. For now, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. We have quite a travel ahead of us, so why don't we all try to get some sleep, hm?" He said, removing his hat, and placing it next to him as he leaned back and started to relax.

When everyone was settled and things all became quiet again, Sakura stayed up and let her mind wonder, for the first time in a while she was feeling drowsy, and she couldn't understand what brought on the sudden bought of sleepiness, but before she could even think more on it, her eyes began to close and things suddenly became dark.

* * *

"Sakura, hey."

Sakura groaned and opened her eyes blearily as she met with dark irises. "Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke nodded and moved her hair out of her face. "Are you okay? You've been asleep for a long time, I knocked about an hour ago and you never got up. So, I let myself in."

She looked around as she sat up, still in a daze, things not really registering as she looked at the calendar, realizing it was the next day from when she was last in Konoha. "What am I doing here?" She asked herself in confusion, wincing when she rubbed her head.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he saw the bruise on her temple. "You live here. Did you hit your head?" He touched the tender area, making Sakura squirm in discomfort.

"Mou, that hurts." She said, pushing his hand away. "Was there something you needed?"

"What," Sasuke said, moving in close until he was almost nose to nose with Sakura. "I can't come visit you?"

The rosette pushed his face away playfully. "Nice try, what really brought you here?" She stretched and waited for Sasuke's answer.

Sasuke sighed and stood up from her bed. "Naruto made me come check on you, I told him I'd probably be the last person you'd want to see, but he wouldn't listen to me." He shrugged and looked away.

Sakura sighed and placed her hands on her lap. "You know I don't mind seeing you, it's just..."

"Awkward." Sasuke finished.

She nodded and tried to fix her hair, which she just realized was up in odd angles. "Yeah." She said lamely.

Sasuke nodded, sitting down on the bed. "You know they don't have to be, we were friends way before we even decided to be in a relationship... We just weren't ready."

Sakura bit her lip and nodded once again. "I know." She really didn't want to have this conversation right now. Not while her mind was on other things. More like Middle Earth and why she kept coming back and forth between worlds, or wherever she came from, during her sleep. Talking with Sasuke about their break up was one thing that was not on her mind and she didn't want him to think she didn't care, but really, there were more pressing matters at hand. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

Sasuke looked up and nodded.

"Do you believe in other dimensions?"

Sasuke blinked in surprise. "You mean, like other worlds?"

Sakura blushed, realizing what her question sounded like.

Sasuke scratched his chin. "I guess, Madara was known for crossing through time and space, I believe there are jutsu that also send you off to other dimensions, like somewhat of the Mangekyou, that's a whole other dimension in itself, but you'd have to meet someone pretty powerful to do something like that. Why do you ask?"

Sakura shook her head and leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, more confused than ever. "Nothing, I was just curious. And you're right, things don't have to be awkward between us, we're friends first and foremost!"

…

…

…

Later that day, Sakura sneaked into the Hokage's personal library, knowing that she would get in trouble if she were caught snooping around. But she had some things she needed to figure out, and she doubted she'd find it anywhere else but in this very place. It was risky, and without the permission from the Hokage she could possibly lose her medic license, but it was a risk she needed to take.

She needed to figure out what was going on in her life. How was she able to go from one place to another? And if she was actually going to different dimensions, or if she was just having a dream? If that were the case, then which one was the dream? Time seemed to move a lot faster in Middle Earth, things went on without her, but in Konoha, everything stops when she's away, nothing happens. So is everything in Middle Earth. . . just a dream?

She shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts, she went through too much for everything to be just a dream, she didn't believe that for a second. She needed to figure things out, fast. Especially before she went to sleep again, things started to change when she fell asleep. Which didn't make sense, being she fell asleep all those months Gandalf left her in the care of Hobbiton. She never remembered going back to Konoha.

She groaned and rubbed her head wincing when she felt her bump. She removed her hand and stared at it in wonder. Middle Earth couldn't be a dream, how could it if her injuries made it through one place to the other?

"Strange..." She said to herself in thought, reaching for another book at the top of the shelf.

…

…

…

It was a few hours later when Sakura finally left the library, giving up on any hopes of ever figuring out what had been going on in her life. She didn't know if she'd be back in Middle Earth the next time she fell asleep, or if everything was all just a dream. She wished she had all the answers, and that life would make it easy for her.

With nothing else to do, Sakura walked back to her apartment, without any ideas or answers to all her many questions. The only good thing that happened today was that she got to see Sasuke after so long of him being off on missions.

She hoped Frodo and the others were all okay. That was all that mattered right now, she hoped nothing bad was happening to them while she was gone. She knew they could very well take care of things on their own, but she was much more comfortable when she was with them. Her main concern was Frodo, and how he was handling things, she noticed how different he's been. Like he was slowly changing, she didn't know what sort of powers the ring had, but she knew they had to be strong with they way Frodo had been acting as of late.

She wanted to try and fall asleep and see what would happen. She was even going to be prepared, she was quickly running out of soldier pills, so she was going to slip a few in her pocket and see if they would wind up in Middle Earth. If a bruise could pass through, why not soldier pills, and why not be prepared for whatever was going to happen? She was beginning to think that she could be in two places at once, but she knew that had to be a crazy idea.


End file.
